Quick Tip: Change Monitor Timeout From Command Line

by Lowell Heddings on

It drives me crazy when my monitors turn off while I’m watching a movie. If you want to quickly change the monitor timeout using the command line, it’s actually pretty simple.

The powercfg utility can be used on the command line to change power configuration settings, including the monitor timeout, which is what we’ll use here.

The command syntax:

powercfg -Change -monitor-timeout-ac 120

This will change the monitor setting to stay on for 120 minutes while on AC power. You can use -dc at the end to change the setting for when you are on battery power.

Lowell Heddings, better known online as the How-To Geek, spends all his free time bringing you fresh geekery on a daily basis. You can follow him on if you'd like.